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Monday, May 20, 2013

Luke Wimberly from Handy Hardware believes that their
implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution from VAI has
helped him to become a better manager.

·I can clearly see what my employees are doing.

·I never have to wonder what they are doing.

·I never have to wonder if they are working.

·I know if they are on-break or off-break.

·If they are actually picking or having an issue.

·I can watch them from my office instead of
having to come down to the floor.

·I find out where my employees are and what they
are doing at all times.

Watch the Video:

The Experience:

·The overall experience with RF (Radio Frequency)
has been a good one.

·It took a little getting used-to, because they
were used to doing things manually.

·After everyone became familiar with the system,
everything went off without a hitch.

·It probably took about a week for everybody to
learn everything well.

·It has now overall tremendously increased time
for picking, shipping or receiving.

Benefits:

·For anything that we use RF, productivity has
increased.

·Productivity has gone up 47%.

·Our ERP supplier, VAI, is responsive to our
needs.They correct issues
quickly.They are a good company to work
with.

Handy Hardware
Overview:

Handy Hardware is one of only six dealer-owned hardware
buying groups in the U. S. As a regional wholesale hardware distributor, whose
growth spans the last forty three years, Handy's basic structure and approach
to the market place have remained sound and unchanged, through an ever-changing
economy. Handy Currently serves over 1,300 members in twelve states out of
their 560,000 sq. ft. facility in Houston, TX and their second warehouse
facility covering 468,000 sq. ft. in Meridian, MS.

Thoughts:

A week?As a
business owner I would gladly trade a week and the aggravation of new software to
get a 47% increase in productivity.Imagine what the long term ROI (Return on Investment) wouldbe.

Where can you start or finish, when talking about this success
story about ERP, RF processing and productivity in warehouse operations.What I notice most is a common theme in WMS
(warehouse management systems), ERP in general and life as a whole.

Change is
uncomfortable.

We live life peak-to-peak.We are at a place now where we know we have
to make changes, but the gap between where we are and where we would like to be
seems great.Too large to jump in a
single step.If it were easy for us, we
would already be there contemplating the next gap.

I cannot imagine it was an easy decision to move forward
for Handy Hardware.I also imagine that
they knew they could not stay where they were.Probably took some hand holding, some leap of faith.VAI has done this work before, they have a
proven success record and above all staying where they were on a technology
stance was not going to allow them to compete and service their customer base
in a manner that would enable growth.

We know it is not an easy choice to make change.It is usually very difficult to get consensus
among your team.But, what are the
alternatives?If you do not service your
customers, someone else will.At Dolvin Consulting we work with industry
experts like VAI and IBM to deliver proven solutions to your challenges.We can only guess who you are and what your
struggles include.Today’s challenges can
be tomorrow’s memories, if you start now.Contact us to see
how we can help you.We are here to
help.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Okay, I just finished power washing my deck in
preparation of staining and although that may not sound all that terrific to
you, I believe it has a lot of parallels to your Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) system.

First and foremost I had a lot to do and I really did not
want to start something that would take some amount of time, however, tackling
the biggest challenge of the day first and getting that done takes the a lot of
pressure off.Doing the little tasks are
nice, because you get a lot of things done, but there is still this “big thing”
to be done.

In reality it was not that bad a job.I had done it plenty of times before.I just did not want to get started.The deck is in relatively good shape.It has been stained and receives a fresh coat
each year.Now the stain manufacturer
says I can get five years usage on a deck surface.That might be true, but it also depends on
the type and amount of usage the deck receives.Regardless, the deck is in not that bad a shape and I do what I found
works.The preventative maintenance is
not nearly as much effort as replacing the entire deck due to neglect.

Athorough cleaning is probably all it really needs and
is what I could get away with, this year.However, it just looks better and I feel more confident in the
preparation with it being refreshed for a new season.Trying to figure out what I can get away with
is a lot more effort than just being proactive about taking care of what needs
to get done.

In your ERP world, are you just getting by?Are you doing simple maintenance?Have you looked at the costs associated with
replacing or upgrading your solution so that all of your people are more
productive?

Do you look at it
as the costs or as the investment in your organization?

I am not suggesting that you replace your system each
year.But, what about upgrades to stay
current?How many releases behind are
you?How nimble is your organization should
your customers or a potential new customer want to do business with you, but
you do not have the resources available?

Does your ERP supplier have a preventative maintenance
program?Are they just fixing problems
or are they looking at your industry to identify new trends and needs?Are they asking you what you want and need or
do they wait for requests?How
accessible are they and responsive to your growing needs?

Clear the clutter
and streamline your operations.

Refresh your systems, invest in your enterprise which
includes your employees and most of all your customers.When was the last time you asked them what
you could be doing to make things easier for them to do business with you?I can guarantee that your competition is
knocking at their door with what they can and will do for their business.

Do you let your
customers know what you are doing to improve your processes?

I believe that guests to our home appreciate that we make
a welcome environment for them.I am not
sure if they know what effort goes into this environment to make them feel
comfortable, however, I am sure they feel it.Often they will say how nice and comfortable it is and I can elude to my
philosophy of creating a welcome environment.I do not do it for the thanks, it is just my way of being proactive.

In what way are
you cleaning, protecting, and making a welcome environment for your guests
(customers)?

Every one of your people are in customer service whether
you realize it or not.This includes the
people that push the brooms, file the documents, answer the phones, make calls,
analyze the data, hold board meetings.Everyone.It is a team effort and
nothing happens unless everyone does their part.

Cleaning the deck or refreshing and investing in new
systems is part of the overhead associated with not only staying current, but
making your customers feel welcome and valued.It is generally easier to keep up with the updates than try to do
everything all at once every five years.

An ERP solution
has a limited lifespan without regular maintenance.

Here is your opportunity to contact us.At Dolvin
Consulting we are interested in helping you help your customers.A rising tide lifts all ships.Our success depends on helping you be
successful.Perhaps you have an older
system that is so far behind, perhaps you need to address growing pressure from
your customers, perhaps you just want to know that you are already doing
everything you can.Contact us today to see
how we can help.

Monday, May 6, 2013

It does not seem too long ago, my wife and I purchased a
live (balled) tree for Christmas.We
actually did that for our first three years together.I was looking out in the back yard recently
and was just staring.You see we live in
a neighborhood that was built a number of years ago on what was a golf
course.The houses are relatively close
together.We have nice neighbors, but we
also like to feel like we have some privacy.

It is called “Green” now, but I just liked the concept of
having a live tree that could be planted instead of thrown out on the curb for
garbage collection a couple of weeks later.The trees took to the yard just fine.Taking an outdoor tree, bringing it inside to a warm environment, then
back out in winter can stress the tree.When
they were planted each was four or five feet tall.In a few years they towered over the
yard.

And that was what I was contemplating.The trees are probably 35 feet tall now.I might need to find a geometry book and
figure out the calculation of angle-side-angle so I can calculate the actual
height.A somewhat nerdy thought, I agree.It really is not that important to know how
tall they are.What is important is the
transformation of the yard.

I did not plan on having a green fence that gave shade
and privacy all year round.The
evergreens are so nice, even in the winter season, having some green
around.The snow on them looks nice too.

A few years ago our older neighbor moved out.She was a really nice lady and we had respect
for each other’s privacy.Knowing that
new neighbors would move in, we replaced a 4 foot chain link fence with a vinyl
6 foot privacy fence. The first thing
the new neighbors did was erect a 12 foot tall play fort for their kids right
next to the fence.No zoning laws for
that unfortunately.The kids and parents
like to climb up and stare and comment on our yard.So we planted some fast growing cedar
trees.At the time they barely topped
the fence.

We believed the nursery
when they told us they would grow quickly and return our privacy to us.

Now just a few years later these new trees, green all
year long, are 30 feet tall.At the time
we did not know what to do.What we
thought we wanted would not have helped.The nursery owner became our trusted advisor.He understood the problem and had the
knowledge of what would work.It really
was not that uncommon a problem and he had dealt with it before.

Looking at your situation in business sometimes takes
forward looking back sight.Are you
seeing your business as it is now or as it could be?I did not plan to plant trees for privacy,
but the results were worth the effort and expense.I am glad I made the investment when I did.

Looking back it
really was not that much effort or expense.The results are worth everything to us.There was waiting, faith, belief and a
trusted advisor.

As a business owner you need to keep current and keep up
with the demands from customers whose expectations are always changing and
evolving.Your competition is doing that
all the time.A happy customer is a
loyal customer.

Any update, upgrade, new, or replacement of software
should have the goal of increasing customer satisfaction.Efficiency is important and it is how you can
afford to serve your customers better.It
is like your optimal weight.You belt has
another notch free, your clothes feel good and your walk is lighter, but are
you any happier?Did the weight loss
enable you to do anything more or more efficiently?If the result of the efficiency does not
serve your customers, then you will not have customers.

A fresh set of
eyes to look at what you are doing is a valuable investment.It is hard to look outside of the box when
you are in the box.One of my favorite
sayings is: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

Many companies look to a trusted advisor when they realize
that what they are doing just does not work anymore.Sometimes this is due to an increase in
business.The business grows, sometimes
rapidly, and they just do not realize right away that the software that worked
really well at one business level, just cannot keep up anymore.At the other end of the spectrum is a
business that is losing ground.

The purpose of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
software solutions is to seamlessly integrate as much of the business
operations together as possible.The
best way for management to make intelligent decisions is to know what is going
on, what are the trends and financial outlook.ERP enables the left hand to know what the right hand is doing.

This much you
already know.

In this day and age, we know what ERP solutions are
supposed to do.What we may not know is in
what way the investment, which can be significant, can produce a Return on
Investment (ROI) and in what time frame.

This is a really
big point.

If the ROI will essentially pay for the solution in one
to two years, any longer and it probably is not the right choice, then you are
losing money/revenue right now.This is
a fact, not a sales pitch.Think about
the fact that if you can achieve a reasonable return, then that is most likely
due to inefficiency in your operations.Inefficiency can be costly.It is
money that could be used to improve customer service, grow market share, expand
capacity, save jobs, take a vacation, etc.

Sometimes it takes
a leap of faith.You have to
believe.

A trusted advisor can help bridge the gap.Dolvin
Consulting works with industry experts to help you look at what you are
doing today and where you want to be in a few years.We start by working with your people to
define areas that need improvement and have potential for great ROI.Sometimes we just do not realize how much
pain there really is, because we have always done “it” this way.Then we work with your decision makers to
define your budget and find solutions that will work.